A Sense of Home
by AmyPants
Summary: Ella has lived on the streets of Brooklyn ever since a freak accident killed her parents and give her abilities over ten years ago. After an altercation with two men and a knife during a routine patrol, Spiderman finds her and brings her back to the Avengers tower where she is given the chance to join a new family after being alone for so long.
1. Chapter 1

AN/ Hey guys, this is my first time writing anything (Like, at all) so please be nice :) (But constructive criticism is always appreciated x)

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Ella woke up behind a dumpster; Damp, sore, and hungry. The cold New York air drove through her aching frame as she tightened her grip on the thin flannel covering her, in hopes to coax some warmth out of the soaking material. Living on the streets for the past ten years had wrecked her small body, each rib dangerously poking out of her sallow skin, threatening to split her open with one more missed meal.

After the accident, no matter how much she ate, Ella was never satiated, and now with so little to eat, it seemed as though she was running on fumes alone.

Groaning, Ella lifted herself from behind the bin, searching around for her threadbare backpack. She found it a few feet away in the alleyway; She must have been in a rush last night to find somewhere safe to crash, and thrown her backpack before she fully passed out. With the minute amount of energy she could muster, Ella slung the backpack over her shoulder, and set off to try and find some food, or at least a compassionate stranger who would share their leftovers from breakfast.

After a kind old man had given her the last few bites of his hot dog, Ella tried to find a busy street corner where she could at least try to earn a few dollars. Although it was humiliating, Ella stood up as straight as she could in front of an old mug she had found in someone's trash, and began to sing. It was all she could manage to earn some loose change, and before the accident it was something she loved to do, but now it just made her more ashamed to be seen by the public.

After mustering a few dollars, Ella bought a cheap hotdog from a vendor on the street near where she performed. The kind vendor looked at her frail frame and snuck an extra sausage into the bun when Ella wasn't looking, before thrusting it into her small hands in exchange for a dollar note. Seeing the remaining money in her hands, Ella saw a small second-hand store a few feet down from the stand, and made her way inside.

Sitting on a bench in central park, a resolute Ella bit into her meal and almost moaned a sigh of relief; It was hot and filled her stomach for the first time in weeks. Sadly, in a few bites the hotdog was gone, and the small girl looked close to tears, it was so rare to be able to buy a meal purely for herself, and she knew it was going to be much longer until her next one, with a biting winter around the corner. Sighing, Ella picked up her backpack, and headed to find a secluded alleyway to call home for the night.

On the way to her usual spot, Ella heard a small cry coming from the corner of the park as she was leaving. Pausing, she strained her ears to find where the noise was coming from.

"Hello?" Ella called out into the quickly approaching night.

A little girl, no older than seven slunk out from behind a tree to her right. With a red tearstained face, the child looked up at Ella and looked as though she was going to start wailing all over again.

"Hi, my name's Ella, what's yours?" Ella knelt down to the girl, holding out her hands in a gesture of goodwill.

The little girl's whispered reply was so faint, Ella wasn't sure she would have heard it if it wasn't for the _accident_ , and her improved senses.

"Amelia"

"Well Amelia, how about we find out where your Mum and Dad are, and get you straight back to them?"

"Okay" Came the equally quiet reply.

Ella held her hand out to Amelia, who took it with a tentative pause, obviously weighing the importance of stranger danger versus finding her parents, and deciding that the latter was more important in the moment. Before setting off, Ella remembered her previous purchases with the last of her meagre share from earlier in the day, and dove into her backpack to retrieve a slightly beat up plush elephant, pushing it into Amelia's tiny hands.

"Have this, It's not much, but I find something to hug is always helpful when you're a little afraid at times"

The small girl took the elephant and clutched it to her chest in a deathly grip; Wide-eyed and blotchy faced, the girl held out her left hand and Ella took it once more, straining her eyes and ears to try and find a set of parents wandering around the park.


	2. Chapter 2

After about 15 minutes of walking, Ella heard yelling in the distance. Picking Amelia up, she ran to the noise, spotting a pair of younger parents, frantically yelling their child's name into the abyss that was now central park. As soon as she heard her parent's screams, Amelia jumped out of Ella's arms and sprinted to her mother, still clutching her stuffed elephant.

Laughing with relief, the young couple turned to Ella, Amelia securely snuggled between the two, and thanked her profusely.

"I don't know what we would have done without you, It was getting so dark and she just ran off without a word," The mother rambled, "I don't know how I would cope without my little girl."

"It's all in a day's work ma'am," Ella replied, "I know what it's like to lose a loved one, I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

After much debate between Ella and the reunited trio, the mother thrust a stack of tens into the teenager's hands.

"I know it's not much, but it's all I have on me at the moment," The mother explained breathlessly, "thank you once again for bringing our little girl back in one piece."

Ella thanked the pair for their gratuity, and made her way through the park, trying to figure out a way to her usual alleyway now that the light had completely faded. Ella knew walking alone in a dark Brooklyn was dangerous, and even though she knew that the famed Queens spider was just a few blocks away in the suburb over, Ella sincerely doubted that a superhero like him would go out of his way to help a useless little homeless girl lost in the dark.

Little did she know, Spiderman's patrol had taken him further across the border that night, and the web slinger was flying above her head at that moment, eyes peeled for danger; After all, it wasn't a school night, and he didn't have a curfew to abide.

A few streets away from her relatively safe dumpster, disaster struck. Clutching the small amount of money in her hands, Ella encountered two burly men brandishing knives, quickly surrounding her.

"We don't want no trouble little miss, just give us the money and the backpack." The first man spoke in a low, rumbling voice.

"Please sir, this is all I have, not tonight" Ella spoke warily, stepping into the light of a nearby lamp.

Ella knew she could take these men on. After the accident, her _abilities_ meant that she could easily overcome the threats without laying a finger on them, but she knew she was weak, and wasn't sure that after all this time, her powers still worked. She was so ashamed of the abilities she inherited after the accident that killed her parents, she rarely used them, and so she was still wild, unpredictable.

The men stilled at Ella's gaunt face, she could have been beautiful in another life, under the grime and the starvation that carved out her cheekbones and rimmed her grey eyes.

"Ah look what we have here, a little toy to play with. Don't be difficult dear, we'll take the money _and_ we'll even give you a little fun as well." The second man spoke this time, a thick accent lacing his words, making Ella shiver in disgust.

The men slowly advanced, still holding their knives, now with a more sinister glint in their eyes; Ella knew what they wanted, and was scared that she wouldn't have the strength to fend off their assault, regardless of her _abilities_.

Only a block away, Spiderman stilled. His senses were going haywire, and he knew exactly what that meant – danger was near.

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Hey Guys - send me a message if theres anything you want added to this story (I know my creativity is going to peter out eventually, so I wouldn't mind some inspo :)


	3. Chapter 3

Ella's breath quickened as the men took another step towards her shaking frame. Around her the lamplights started to quiver as well, mirroring her body's movements. The men didn't notice the change in scenery, taking another step, while above their heads, the beginnings of Spiderman's threads materialised on the rooftop of the old café closest to them.

"Come here little girl, it'll be so much easier for all of us if you just don't resist."

Ella almost considered it; She could just lay back and take it, and maybe she wouldn't feel the sharp sting of a knife in her gut. Maybe, hopefully, she wouldn't feel anything at all. Around her, the lamps were now violently shaking, accompanying the trembling rubbish bins on the streets, and rattling windows of the buildings around the trio.

Spiderman, just arriving at the scene, moved into a fighting stance on the rooftop above Ella and the men, readying his web shooters before realising that the intended target – a lamp post – was moving as though there was a sizeable earthquake shaking the ground around them. Confused and curious, a masked Peter Parker took a moment to assess the situation before him.

Ella's breath quickened to the point where she wasn't sure if the air she was bringing in was actually reaching her lungs, or just entering her dry mouth, and circulating right back out again. She felt like she was going to either explode or pass out, and, at this moment, either option would have been alright with her. With her last ounce of restraint, Ella choked out, "Please."

With that, it seemed as though small bomb had gone off in the front of _Café Beanz_ on the border of Queens and Brooklyn, shattering lightbulbs and cracking windows. Two men went flying into the hard metal posts, which, only a few seconds ago, one could easily recognise as lampposts. Sensing his chance, Spiderman webbed the assailants to the posts, leaving them for the police to pick up, whilst he focused on the cause of the explosion.

In the epicentre, a small girl was huddled, clothed in a ripped flannel and jeans, sobbing.

"Hello?"

Peter approached slowly, he didn't want to scare the dark huddle in the middle of a ring of charred cement and burnt shrapnel.

"What's your name?"

The girl couldn't have been any older than him, around 16 or 17, and was much, much skinnier. Peter reckoned he could lift her with one finger if it came to that, but he didn't really want to find out. What he did know, however, was that she was something special, something powerful.

Although the blast was long over, power still ebbed from the girl, moving ash in graceful waves around her head and shaking body. It was as though she herself was a wash of movement, sending energy through the air, inviting Peter closer and closer, and Peter obliged, considering his senses weren't going haywire, she must be safe.

"Please, let me help you. I'm like you"

At this the girl's head swung up viciously. Her storm cloud eyes glared at peter through a shock of dark hair.

"You are nothing like me," she spat out ruthlessly, "there is nothing like me."

On paper, these words could be taken for cockiness; Something one would expect Tony Stark to say behind a set of tinted sunglasses and a media-worthy smirk. In fact, Peter has almost certainly heard Mr. Stark say that phrase to an over-reaching journalist in a press conference or two. But he's never heard those words come out sounding so desolate. There was venom in her voice, but it wasn't aimed at Peter. There was nobody like this girl, because she believed that nobody could ever be as damaged as she had become. She didn't believe she was gifted with power like Spiderman, Peter realised; She was cursed.

Ella tried to stand. She lifter her heavy limbs one by one, trying to give an illusion of strength to the boy in front of her. She knew that the outburst he had just witnessed had put a target on her back, and she wanted to move; She _needed_ to move. Lifting her head once again, after letting it drop back down after her tirade at the boy, Ella knew she wasn't getting anywhere that night. It was as though all the energy had exited her body in the explosion; She was exhausted, and the fact that she hadn't eaten that night didn't help.

Suddenly, there was a shadow hanging over her. The boy had made his way towards her, holding out his had as a gesture of goodwill. Ella couldn't help the flinch that ran through her body when she saw the movement of his hands, and she knew he noticed as well. Ella had no idea who the boy was, she didn't get a good look at him before she dropped her gaze in shame. Declining the stranger's hand, Ella tried to stand once more. Stars danced around her vision, lighting up the streets that had been plunged into darkness from the incident that had only happened minutes prior, but seemed like hours ago to the young girl. The stars only lasted for a few seconds however, because they gave way to what could only be described as a tidal wave of pure exhaustion; Ella's world went black.

Peter saw the girl try to get up. He almost ran towards her, telling her to keep down and conserve energy, but decided against it when he realised she wasn't getting very far anyways. He approached her tentatively, and held out his hand, not missing the slight flinch she gave when he got too close. Someone had hurt this girl, he thought, and the superhero instinct in him told him what to do; He knew he had to get her to the tower one way or another. Mr Banner would be able to help; Hell, Mr Stark could probably be of more assistance than Peter could give right now.

The teenage boy looked at the small girl, still trying to move from her crouched position in front of him. Peter ran through options in his head; How would he manage to get the girl to agree to come with him to the tower? Luckily, he didn't have to ponder too long, as in front of him, the girl had promptly passed out from pure exhaustion.

Spiderman felt terrible picking the girl up, knowing that if she were awake at that moment, he would most likely be in a lot of trouble, considering how he saw her handle previous threats. Peter knew that, even though the bundle of hair and flannel in his arms would be petrified to know what was happening right now, the tower would be the safest place for her, considering her current state. As he was picking her up, the teenager noticed how light she truly was; He has assumed she wouldn't weigh much, she wasn't large by any means, but the girl was barely the weight of a ten-year-old. Peter knew he had to get home, and fast. Gripping the nameless girl to his chest with one arm, Peter swung home to the Stark tower.


	4. Chapter 4

Ella woke up in a strange bed, in an even stranger room. Her joints cracked and ached, not used to sleeping on the comfort of a plush mattress after ten years on the streets. Beside her, a glass of water and two white pills rested on the side table. She took the water, but left the unknown pills, even though her head felt as though it was splitting in two. Downing the water quickly, Ella's breath hitched in her throat as she remembered the night before; The men, the explosion, then, the boy. Sitting up straighter now, Ella looked around the room, surveying where she was. She heard a whir of machinery coming from somewhere in the walls, and a computerised voice emanating from what seemed to be nowhere.

"Good morning Miss, I see you have woken up. I am alerting Mr Stark that you are awake."

Before she could tell _whoever_ that person was to keep their mouths shut and not let anyone know where she was, there was a knock on her door. Ella sighed, knowing that she wasn't escaping anytime soon, and deciding she would let the scenario play out before deciding if she was in any immediate mortal danger.

"Come in?" Ella croaked out, her voice not fully recovered from last night's incident.

A man came swiftly through the door, decked out in a business suit and tinted sunglasses, with an impeccably groomed goatee adorning his face; Tony Stark. Ella knew who he was – she may have been homeless, but she didn't live under a rock. The Stark name was everywhere, not to mention he was literally a superhero as well.

"Good morning. I'm sorry, Underoos didn't tell me your name when he dragged you in last night." Tony quipped.

Ignoring whoever _Underoos_ was, Ella considered giving a fake name for a second, but decided against it; Tony Stark was one of the biggest geniuses of the time, and any second-rate idiot could come up with a quick google and find out a fake persona.

"Ella, my name is Ella Whitton"

"Well hello Miss Whitton, My name's Tony –"

"Tony Stark, yes, I know" Ella Interrupted. She wanted to understand why she had woken up in Tony Stark's house when she had so clearly 'gone to sleep' on a sidewalk on the border of Brooklyn and Queens.

With a soft chuckle, Tony continued.

"Spiderman brought you in last night, said he found you doing some crazy shit, er, _stuff_ outside a café in Brooklyn"

"Wouldn't say It was crazy. Actually, I wouldn't say it was anything special at all, definitely not something to call home about – or bring home about in this case."

"Well the security footage begs to differ." Stark brings up a video on his phone, and projects it onto the wall in front of himself. A low-resolution Ella stands in front of two men twice her height and definitely three times her weight. A few minutes later, the video shakes and glitches as an invisible force hits the camera, as well as the two men in front of her, knocking them over.

Ella knew she was caught out. After ten years of hiding, she had become sloppy, and now the consequences were coming to bite her in the ass.

"Look, lock me up, kill me, I don't care anymore, just please don't use my last name when you plaster my face all over the news after my arrest – I don't want my parents being brought into this after all that's happened to them."

"Lock you up? Kill you? What are you on about kid? I'm giving you an invitation. You're an asset, we have been looking for someone like you, and with a bit of training, I reckon we could have you right beside Cap's scrawny ass in no time."

"Wait, you're not going to get rid of me?" Ella was confused, she had just injured two men on film right in front of him, and Mr Stark was _happy_ about it?

"Why would we get rid of you? Like I said, you're an asset Ella."

"I'm not an asset Mr Stark, I'm a _liability"_

"It's _Tony_ , and whoever told you you're a liability sounds like they need a good talking to, courtesy of the green man himself, whenever Bruce decides to wake up."

Ella was bewildered. For the past ten years, she had been told that her powers were dangerous, that they could not lead anywhere but trouble. That's why she lived in hiding, praying day by day that she would survive the constant grime and ache of homelessness, and finally turn 18, free from social workers and the law. She could change her name, move to Seattle, go anywhere but New York. Now this man, _Tony Stark_ , is telling her that she was wanted for once; That she was _needed_. It was all too much, but somehow, exactly what she had dreamed of every night since she was seven, a small girl hiding in a nook in the public library, covered by cushions and books, hiding from the social security workers that had been seeking her out since the _incident_ a few days prior, where her parents had been killed, and where she had gotten her powers.


	5. Chapter 5

After a week or so, Ella finally got permission to leave her room. She chuckled to herself, thinking that it was funny to be grounded like a normal teenager for once. In these less than understandable circumstances, one had to get humour where one could.

Opening the admittedly heavy beige door, Ella peeked outside through a small crack. She may be comfortable in her new home, but a decade on the streets still made her wary. Deciding the coast was clear, Ella moved her small frame through the half-opened door, quiet as a cat. She shuffled in her Iron-Man socks, a humorous gift from Tony on her first night, and turned left into what she considered must be the main living room. A Kitchen stood on her left, gleaming a bright white, as though it had never been used. To her right, the kitchen flowed into a living area, where a comfy-looking couch took up a majority of the space, facing towards a giant television screen, so big that Ella was sure she had never seen one of that size, even in the fancy electronic store windows she passed in Brooklyn. A teenage boy was sitting on the couch, tinkering with a robot of some kind. He looked to be around 18, fresh out of high school, with messy brown hair and spider-man pyjamas. That must be a running theme around here, Ella thought, as she looked down at her own Iron-Man set.

She cleared her throat nervously, and the boy jumped a mile high, letting out a squeak of surprise.

"Hi, wow, you scared me." The nameless boy said as he turned to Ella with a bright smile.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't know anyone was here" Ella returned a small smile of her own.

"Its alright," The boy chuckled, "I was just working on some stuff for Mr Stark, you must be Emily"

"Ella, actually, sorry for interrupting you, I'll let you finish" Ella turned, about to recede back into her room, feeling nervous and embarrassed for breaking the young man's concentration.

"No!" Peter exclaimed, almost a little too enthusiastically. "Sorry, Ella, I mean, you can stay if you want to, I can finish this later. Please stay and chat with me – all the other guys around here are fun and all, but everyone is older, and I'm excited to see someone my own age. I mean, I have Ned and MJ but they're not like, _Avengers_ , you know – "

"I'll stay." Ella cut off the boy's rambling quietly, moving towards the couch.

"Cool, I'm Peter by the way, Peter Parker" The boy, _Peter,_ said, holding his hand out.

"Ella, but you know that already." Ella smiled softly, eyeing Peter's hand. She was still apprehensive about the whole touching thing, after what she did to those men a week ago. She didn't know if her powers could be controlled, and the last thing Ella wanted was for someone else to get hurt, especially an _Avenger_ , or whatever Peter was.

Noticing Ella's hesitation, Peter retracted his hand, and patted the couch next to him, wordlessly inviting her over to sit. Ella accepted his invitation, and took a place on the other end of the couch, facing Peter.

"You can move closer, I'm not going to hurt you." Peter said, almost seeming hurt.

"I know you won't, but I can't promise _I_ wont hurt _you,_ " Ella said, nervously angling her body a little further away from Peter, not quite wanting to see his reply. Instead of the scathing remark she was expecting, Ella felt a weight of the couch lift. She sighed, understanding why Peter had left. She was dangerous and unruly – a troublesome combination. Before she could get up and shuffle back into her room, the couch dipped once more, much closer to Ella this time. She swung her head around to meet deep brown eyes, almost like the black coffee she'd seen her mom drink when she was still around.

"I can promise you, you won't hurt me Ella." Peter said solemnly. "I know what you can do, its pretty remarkable, but you're not dangerous. Well, not yet anyway – I hope you'll be a little more ruthless on the bad guys in due time." Peter grinned during his last remarks, infecting Ella with a sliver of his overbearing light.

"Fine," Ella conceded, "What do you want to know."

"What can you do." Peter was blunt, and the girl appreciated that. Although they were teenagers, both parties had grown up enough due to circumstance to know that bullshitting and small talk were pretty much useless at this point.

"I'm not completely sure," Ella confessed, "I haven't actually tried much out since the accident, and I'm not quite sure I want to."

"Ella, you know you'll have to face your abilities at some point, there's no use denying what I've seen you do is amazing, but it looked wild – just imagine what you could do with control and training. It may just be a humble science nerd's opinion, but I believe you need to accept who you are now, Ella, you'll do more harm than good leaving yourself untrained."

Ella let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Peter was right, she'd been running long enough, and now was the time for her to be held accountable for who she was, and what she could do.

"I think you're right Peter. I just have to figure out who I am first. Its been 10 years of running, I think I have to figure out how to stop."

"Well then, let me help you." The mood flipped like a light switch, Peter grinned at Ella with that full face smile she had seen a few times earlier in the conversation, and ran off, only to come back a few seconds later with an armful of random items. Dumping the knick-knacks on the table in front of them, Peter handed Ella a Stark-branded golf ball.

"Show me what you can do." Peter looked Ella in the eyes with confidence.

Ella focused on the ball in front of her, seeing it shiver slightly with energy. She held her breath, screaming at her mind to concentrate, make the ball move. The ball jerked to the left a few inches, before rolling back into the cup of her palm. Ella sighed and tried a different approach. Closing her eyes, Ella imagined the ball in her mind; Her hand in front of her, bony and weathered, tentatively holding the white sphere. She imagined the ball lifting, floating out of her hand and into the air, held by nothing but energy and air. Peter audibly sucked in a breath, and Ella opened her eyes slowly. There, in front of her, was the golf ball, hovering inches above her now empty palm. She looked up at Peter's face, and finally returned the face-splitting grin.


	6. Chapter 6

After the breakthrough, Peter and Ella spent many hours together, honing her skills. Peter was occupied during the day with his first year at MIT, but spent his available time after school throwing objects at Ella, and watching her flick them away with a wave of her hand.

Until this point, Ella had no idea what Peter truly did in the Avengers tower. She hadn't met the others yet - something about her having to be eased back into a bustling family, like the one the heroes had apparently become – but she knew Peter was part of it in some form. He disappeared for hours when he thought Ella was asleep, or exploring her apartment floor, and always came back with a content smile, and a shock of ruffled hair. If Ella didn't know any better, she may have assumed Peter had a secret relationship waiting for him on the other floors, with the way he arrived at her doors after his absences, rosy cheeked and stifling laughter from a joke he must've heard before his departure.

It wasn't until the Avenger's alarm sounded for the first time after her arrival, that Ella found out who Peter truly was.

The obnoxious noise blared throughout the apartment, startling the two teenagers, sitting close together on the supple couch, laughing about someone that Peter had run into that day during his classes. Ella jumped a mile high at the interruption, never hearing a noise that loud before, apart from the gunshot that had changed her life so recklessly. She immediately cowered against the back of the sofa, covering her head with her hands, and curling in against herself to protect vital organs. Peter stared at her for a second before gently prying the scared girl's hands away from her colourless face.

"Hey, it's alright Ella, it's just the alarm." He said, still holding her wrists.

Ella looked up at him, thoroughly confused, and Peter took her silence as an invitation to continue with an explanation.

"It just means that we have to go fight something now, you know, _Avengers Assemble_ and all that? I gotta go, but I'll be back straight after, okay?"

Ella nodded dumbly, whilst Peter started shrugging off his hoodie and jeans, much to the young girl's shock. Surprisingly for Ella, Peter's lack of clothing did not give way to an unexpected expanse of (assumingly) pale white skin, but rather a brilliant red and blue suit, looking almost out of place in the dreary beige apartment. Ella looked on, open mouthed and in awe, as Peter slid on his mask, completing the transition from nerdy MIT undergrad, to crime-fighting superhero.

"See ya later, alligator." Peter yelled childishly, as he jumped out of Ella's insanely high windows, already swinging his way into the distance, following the flash of gold and red flying ahead of him.

And so Ella sat and waited, watching the television set like a hawk, as Peter, now Spiderman, took down another villain, as easily as one might tie their shoe. With baited breath, she watched the assailant fall to the ground as the Avengers reassembled, heading back to the tower, leaving a small scale of destruction in their wake.

A half hour later, Ella's elevator dinged, and Peter walked out, still clothed in his stained suit, mask in hand. A quiet moment went by before Ella blurted out a sentence she'd been wanting to say since the alarm went off.

"You're _Spiderman?"_ She asked, still in disbelief.

"Oh, yeah, I thought Mr Stark had already told you that," Peter scratched the back of hi s neck nervously, "turns out he didn't. Surprise?"

Ella just stood shock-still whilst the information sunk in, before running full-pace at Peter, throwing her arms around his neck, forgetting all about her fear of touch.

"Jesus Christ you're a freaking idiot Peter," She started, before remembering Peter's dishevelled state, "are you okay? How are you feeling, are you hurt? I watched the fight on tv, Jesus, you get thrown around so much, I –"

Peter interrupted Ella's rambling with a hand to her mouth.

"I'm fine, I've already been checked out by medical. Just, _chill_ , Ella." He laughed.

Ella made a _hrumph_ sound behind Peter's unsanitary glove, and he removed it, still chuckling at her childish pout.

"Fine, go get changed then, I want to practice some more before you go on that big road trip with your friends." Ella said sternly.

"Yes Ma'am," scoffed Peter, turning about foot towards the elevator, "I'll be right back."

The two teenagers spent the rest of the evening playing catch with a ball of Peter's webbing, him throwing it to her gently, and the younger girl catching it without touch, the ball cradled by a cushion of energy before being slung back to the spider, as gentle as his throw had been to her.


	7. Chapter 7

Ella knew that her new life wouldn't last very long. After more than a decade on the streets, you learned not to trust people wholeheartedly; Most importantly, you learnt never to get too comfortable. Ella had been kicked out of more places than she could count. Sometimes it was due to overcrowding, like the homeless shelter she left when she was 11, or the fact that she purely wasn't allowed to live there, like the library she hid in when her parents died, when she was just seven. Sometimes, though, Ella got kicked out of places because of who she was, what she could do. After the library, Ella ran to a youth centre, run by a church. Learning about her powers bit by bit after the accident, she never thought about hiding them – she thought everyone was as accepting of difference as her parents were.

A barely eight-year-old Ella sat in the middle of the common area she had stayed in for less than a month. Next to her was the only friend she had managed to make since the accident, a small 10-year-old named Jack. He sat and watched in awe as Ella made books fly around the room without touch, just like in stories she had read before her parents had passed. More and more kids crowded into the room as word caught on about Ella's display. They looked on as Ella stood and danced around the commotion, toys following her like a train of vibrant colour as she moved through the throng of children. Soon, the caretakers took notice of all the missing children around the centre. The Pastor of the church wandered around the halls, trying to scope out where all of the youth had gone to; It wasn't prayer time, and dinner wasn't for another hour at least. Soon he heard gasps of astonishment and laughter floating in the air, emanating from the common area. The Pastor made his way into the doorway, and stood in shock at what he was witnessing.

"What in the Lord's name is going on in here!"

The trail of dolls and bears behind Ella dropped suddenly, seemingly dull and lifeless after their dance around the room. Silence hung in the air like a thick fog, encompassing everyone inside. Ella turned and looked at the Pastor with baited breath. She knew from his tone that whatever she was doing must be wrong. Maybe he was just mad that she had made a mess, Ella thought, and so she opened her mouth to talk, reassure the Pastor that she would clean everything up right away. Before she could get a word in, the angry voice spoke again.

"You," spoke the Pastor, "you need to leave and never return. We do not approve of this devil worshipping here. Magic is wrong. That kind of _power_ is not allowed in this place of worship. _Get out._ "

Ella choked back tears as the other children watched in horror as the Pastor moved closer to the young girl with every word. Standing over her like a shadow of death, Ella seemed so small under his bulk. Ella followed the direction of the Pastor's finger and began to move slowly towards her room, heading to pick up her bare belongings; A small doll, a book called _Matilda_ , and a picture of her parents that she had saved before her house had burnt down in the accident.

"No." A low voice grumbled before Ella could take a step.

"I'm Sorry Sir?

"I said get out. Now. _Things_ like you don't get belongings. You take from these other children, you _steal_ from them and then you endanger them with your presence. Get out of this house at once. Not a second more."

Ella was frozen in shock after his tirade. The blurred image of the Pastor left her cold throughout her heart and she felt her cheeks heavy and wet with tears. Stifling her sobs, Ella turned and walked through the doors that led her into the cold, dark street. Sitting on the curb across from the centre, she felt so lost. Without her parents, without shelter or food or water, Ella didn't know what she was going to do. She resigned then and there that she would never again trust anyone, even if they seemed as though they were helping her. She could never again get comfortable, love was only temporary for creatures like her, and she could do nothing but accept that.

Whilst Ella was sitting by the road, a small figure ran out from the doors and stopped before her. Her vision still blurry from tears, Ella looked up at the kind face of Jack, who held out his hand to her.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get more for you Ella, the Pastor has kept us all on watch after he kicked you out. I couldn't get your book or your toys, but I managed to save this for you."

In his hand, Jack held out the picture of Ella's parents. Slightly rumpled and torn in one corner, Ella let out a gasp and jumped at Jack, hugging him with all of her might.

"Thank you Jack, I'll never forget this."

"Just, stay safe ok? I'd leave with you, but this is really the best place I've been for a while, and I don't think I can let that go just yet. I'll try and find you again Ella, when I'm 18 and I can take care of myself. I'll look for you."

At that moment, a loud yell from the Youth Centre tore Jack away from Ella.

"That's for me, I'm sorry Ella – Don't forget me, ok?" Jack yelled as he ran towards the lit doorway, a shadow beckoning him in before slamming the door behind the small boy with a resounding _thunk_.

"I won't." Ella whispered, clutching the picture of her parents to her chest, suddenly deciding that trust maybe wasn't such a bad thing after all.


	8. Chapter 8

Ella had the feeling she wasn't needed around the tower for a few weeks now. Ever since accepting Tony's invitation to move into the tower permanently, Ella had moved to the guest bedroom in the common floor. If she left her door open a crack, Ella could hear the Avengers bonding outside in the living room, without her. She knew that it wasn't their fault, that she was the intruder in their already-formed family, but she still couldn't help wishing that she was out there with them, playing Mario Kart and laughing about stupid inside jokes.

These days, Ella mostly stayed in her room, making objects float around her head, or venturing out into Captain Rogers' library, reading classics that she missed out on growing up. Sometimes he would sit with her, telling her stories of when he was younger, all those years ago, and what he had learnt through time. Ella liked those days the most, she felt as though she had a friend in the tower, now that Peter had gone interstate for a while with May and his friends from school.

On the days that the alarm sounded, Ella peeked her head out through the doorway, in case maybe she was needed, even though she knew all she would see was the blur of coloured super-suits flying past her, with faint echo of Captain Rogers' 'Avenger's Assemble' drifting through the empty hallways after the heroes had taken their places in the elevator, already making their way to the source of danger.

Almost a month since her first encounter with Mr Stark and Peter, Ella woke up to the alarm blaring in the early hours of the morning. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she ran to the door, hearing footsteps rush past her in the hallway, and Captain Rogers' loud and commanding voice next to her room. Ella opened her door quickly, almost knocking the Black Widow down in the process.

"Watch out kid!" Natasha stormed, tugging on her utility belt, and sliding a small knife into her boot in front of Ella.

"I'm sorry Ms Romanov. Do you need help out there? I've been practicing what I can do."

The assassin laughed coolly as her flaming hair drifted around her shoulders.

"We don't need you kid, just go back to your room and sleep."

Ella's shoulders sagged as she turned back into her room, closing the door quietly behind her. With glistening eyes, Ella sat on her bed, defeated.

"Heroes don't cry," Ella spoke aloud, "but then again, I'm no hero."

Once the floor steadied and the last echoes of the alarm rang throughout the apartment, Ella opened her door again. This time, the quiet of the hallways seemed to welcome her. She was used to the silence by now, the absence of human contact and the slight hum of machinery, working methodically behind the walls.

"FRIDAY?" Ella called out tentatively, addressing the AI directly for the first time.

"Yes Miss Whitton, how may I be of assistance?" Came the mechanised response.

"Is everybody gone?"

"The Avengers have all left. They are currently on route to approach a sentient Robot in Central Park. Would you like me to contact Mr Stark for you Miss?"

"No thanks FRIDAY. I think I can make my way there myself. Can you please send me their coordinates?" Ella's mind began to form a plan. If she showed how helpful she could be in battle, then maybe the other Avengers would start to accept her more, and Mr Stark wouldn't be so angry all the time. Ella could be useful since moving in to the tower, and start to pay Mr Stark back for his hospitality.

"Miss Whitton, I suggest that joining the Avenger's fight is not advisable. It is recommended that you return to your room and await Mr Stark's return."

"FRIDAY, send me the coordinates. I can handle myself."

"As you wish Miss Whitton."

Ella retreated into her room and changed into some workout leggings and a tank top she'd been issued by a company called SHIELD. They were meant for her training sessions, but Ella had never received an invitation to train, and so never asked where the gym was. She just assumed she wasn't allowed into it until they'd explicitly told her otherwise. Slipping into her old ratted running shoes that had been worn to a thread through her life on the street, Ella grabbed the smartphone Mr Stark had given her, and moved to the elevator. Once hitting the ground floor, Ella was lost, she had no idea how to get to Central Park, and no money to get there. Finding a bicycle chained up a few feet away, she resigned herself to the idea that she would return the bike after the battle, and picked the lock with her powers. Although she was hesitant to use her powers whilst living on the run, Ella had learnt a few key tricks that helped her get by, such as picking locks, and she thanked whoever was looking out for her, because the bicycle chain clicked open easily.

Speeding through the streets, Ella headed to the coordinates Jarvis had sent to her phone, following the pulsating lights shining above the skyscrapers, and sounds of destruction. It had seemed the robot had moved through the park, and had started into the buildings bordering the green sanctuary. Ella spotted the robot before she saw the Avengers. It was as tall as the buildings that surrounded it, and was moving wildly, shooting shrapnel at anything that came near it. Iron-Man was hovering above its head, surveying the scene and intermittently shooting his own repulsor beams at the object. Hawkeye and Black Widow looked to be fighting from ground level, shooting explosive arrows into the seams of the metalwork, and observing the robot, looking as though they were tyring to figure out where the off switch was. Finally, Captain America was herding the civilians away from the wildly stomping feet of the robot, making sure that nobody was hurt in his presence.

Ella decided that the easiest way to attack the robot was to get up higher. She didn't have jet thrusters like Iron-Man, or webs like Spiderman, but she decided to try her luck on levitating to the closest building top. Finding a dismembered car door, Ella thought that the best cause of action would be to focus on moving the door, rather than herself. Sitting in the middle of the upturned door, she closed her eyes and felt the familiar pull in her chest. The door left the ground warily at first, hovering a few inches above the asphalt, before rising quickly to the top of a building level to the robot's arms. Ella felt the clunk of metal hitting cement before opening her eyes, wincing at the brightness of Iron-Man's repulsors, as well as the bright sun uninhibited by buildings. Turning to the robot, she heard a shout from the streets below.

"Ella, get back from there!" A familiar bow-bearing assassin, who was scaling the robot's leg, had spotted the small girl perched at the edge of the building. Unfortunately, it seemed the robot had as well.

Ella heard commotion from the other Avengers, but could only focus on one thing; The huge, hollow gun pointed at her body, attached to the arm of a giant sentient robot. Below the arm, Black Widow was swinging haphazardly screaming at Ella to run, but the girl could do nothing but freeze.

A whir of machinery broke Ella out of her spell, as she gathered all the energy she could muster.

"A hero doesn't run." Ella spoke to nobody but herself, as she stared down the black abyss of the gun's barrel.

Almost as if in slow motion, a ball of shrapnel moved through the barrel of the gun, twisting and groaning its way through, aided by the burst of fire behind it. Ella held out her hands and closed her eyes in a grimace. She willed the ball to stop, feeling the struggle of power between the force of the bullet and her own abilities, fighting against each other, opposing magnets trying to avoid a collision. Around her, the rest of the Avengers had caught on to the commotion; Iron-Man was flying at full speed towards her, the Captain threw his shield at the robot, in an effort to distract him to no avail. Clint and Natasha could only stand (or in Natasha's case, swing) and watch as a ball of shrapnel the size of the little girl it was aimed for flew towards its target, only slowing down slightly with Ella's effort. Bruce, who was residing in the jet on a rooftop, surveying the battle, tried to coax out the Hulk, but it was too late, the bullet was headed at Ella, and she wasn't strong enough in her control to stop it completely.

Ella knew she was in trouble. She thought she would be able to handle the bullet, but she quickly realised that no amount of dreaming and planning in her room could have prepared her for real battle. With a last final push, Ella held her hands in front of her face, bracing herself from the impact of the bullet. She felt a surge of energy, similar to the one all those nights ago when Peter first found her, and looked up. A mirage of light surrounded her as she hovered inches above the rooftop. The bullet hit the wall of energy around Ella and slowed down enough for her to regain control. Wincing with pain and exhaustion, Ella used the last of her strength to push the ball back into the robot at full force, causing it to retreat into the barrel and create an explosion so loud that the windows of the cars on the street below all shattered. Drenched in sweat and tears, Ella looked around her at the disapproving faces of the band of heroes she so wanted to be like, and collapsed onto the cool rooftop, closing her eyes and letting sleep take over her mind.


	9. Chapter 9

"I just want to know what she was thinking."

"Tony, she wanted to help."

"She wasn't very helpful then! She could have gotten herself killed out there, Bruce. I can't handle another death on my watch, not after Peter, I feel like I only just got him back."

Ella woke slowly, her mind clutching to the last dregs of sleep like a child staying up past their bedtime. She kept her eyes closed, focusing on the pain splitting her head in two. The voices around her continued.

"Tony, just let her sleep for now, you can give her a talking to after she has her rest. That whole fight must have taken everything out of her. She's so small, it's a wonder that she had enough power to pull a stunt like that in the first place." Ella deciphered Bruce's voice, soft but stable, talking to someone across the bed from him.

"She shouldn't be allowed out to pull a stunt like that in the first place. She wasn't ready. That whole fight could've gone a completely different way. She put everyone in danger. She put _herself_ in danger." Ella stiffened, the words resonating in her head. She had endangered everyone, just like the Pastor from her childhood had warned her about. Ella knew that something needed to change around the tower, and it most likely had to be her.


	10. Chapter 10

Ella woke up alone in the medical floor of the tower. The bright lights burned behind her eyelids, and she winced as she opened her eyes to stark white furniture and a needle in her left hand. She lifted her head and looked around the barren room before flopping back down and pressing a button near her arm to call a nurse. The pain echoed through her skull, not a splitting ache anymore, but a dull pulse, reminding her of her actions. A broad-shouldered nurse rushed in and started recording Ella's vital signs on the chart hanging on the end of her bed. Drifting in and out of sleep, Ella heard the faint sound of footsteps, and a hand holding hers, before losing her consciousness entirely.

The next time Ella woke up, she was back in her room. She turned her head in the dimly lit space and had a sense of Deja vu, next to her head was a glass of water, glistening with condensation, and two small white pills. This time, Ella picked up the pills along with the water, and swallowed them thickly, her throat still sore and aching from lack of use. A gentle knock on her door startled her more than she'd like to admit, and she called the person in.

A concerned face with a mop of perfectly groomed blonde hair poked their head through the doorway, followed by broad shoulders and muscular arms. Steve stood in front of Ella's bed, a look of what seemed to be disappointment and sadness on his face.

"Good to see you're awake." Steve spoke softly, keeping his distance.

Ella didn't say anything, she didn't know how.

"You know, what you did was real stupid, kid," Steve moved to the left of her bed, where a worn chair sat, "We could have handled the threat on our own."

"I know Captain Rogers," Ella sighed, "I just feel so useless here. I wanted to be helpful for once."

The blonde man adjusted himself in the chair so that he was face to face with Ella's seated figure.

"You are not useless, Ella, but you will be if you keep fighting the way you did, and putting yourself in harm's way like that. Oh, and call me _Steve_ for goodness sake." He nagged gently

Ella's head suddenly felt heavy, a thick fog settling around her mind, leaving her words slurred and her eyes drooping. The medication must have kicked in, she thought to herself.

Noticing Ella's lessening state, Steve stood, brushing a dark tendril away from the small girl's forehead.

"Sleep tight, El, I think you need it."


	11. Chapter 11

A few months later, Ella was in the same predicament as she was before her stunt with the robot. After a chastising from Mr Stark, and the silent treatment from the rest of the crew, bar Steve, Ella had well and truly learnt her lesson. Slowly but surely, Ella had learnt to speak more to the rest of the Avengers team, often going to each of the members for advice and help on differing topics. Most of the time, they made an effort to help, or if they couldn't, they came around to Ella's room later that day with an apology that they were busy.

Soon, Ella got into the rhythm of the Avenger's dynamic; She went to Tony, whom she still stubbornly but respectfully called Mr Stark, to learn about machines and anything engineer-related. When she wanted insight and calm, she would go to Bruce, letting him tell her about his worldly adventures when she was feeling restless.

Natasha helped her through all of her self-doubt as a woman, teaching her how to walk in heels if ever needed, but also showing her how to do her hair so that it wouldn't come out whilst fighting a team of angry ninja warriors. If she ever needed cheering up, Ella would find Clint, usually hanging out in the vents somewhere, cracking her up with jokes and stories that would leave her gasping for breath. Peter was still away, traversing wherever he was with MJ and Ned, May now back home safely. Ella loved the video calls he made to the whole group, where they would all sit in the butter-soft leather couch in front of the television screen, and talk for hours to Peter on the other side of America, his brown hair ruffled and his hands gesticulating wildly as he described the sights he had seen since the last video call.

Finally, she bonded with Steve over books. Whenever the world got a little too tough, or the voices in her head beat her down just enough so that she didn't want to get out of bed that day, she forced her legs to the library, where Steve usually sat, when he didn't have Avenging to do, straight-backed and lost in a novel he had loved from his past, or deep in the lines of a sketchbook. Ella would sit with him, curled up in her own pillowy armchair next to the window, reading adventure novels and basking in the light, mellowed by the sound of nothing but the constant hum of machinery, and the metronomic breaths of Steve from across the room. They rarely talked in those moments, just read; Other times, Steve and Ella held long conversations over cocoa and a mutual book, where Steve would end up trying to give Ella advice about mistakes he had made in the past, ones that she could learn from. The conversations often ended with Steve's forlorn smile, a ruffle of Ella's dark, unruly mane, and two empty mugs, left in the kitchen sink for Steve to clean later.

Eventually, however, Ella had slowly realised that there was a missing beat in the rhythm – her. Nobody came to her for help or advice, and the dark feeling that she was useless in the web of Avengers came creeping back into her mind, bit by bit.


	12. Chapter 12

On Monday, Ella went down to Mr Stark's workshop, trying to drive the dark out of her head by letting him to talk at her about some machine he was working on, or a formula he was especially interested in. She knocked on the door out of habit, before opening it and walking straight in without a response. Tony was sitting at his main bench, surrounded by holograms and dismantled mechanics. His head hung low as he worked on some equations on a tablet resting on the table, the screen hidden from Ella by the mop of unruly brown hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in days. Ella could tell Mr Stark was on one of his work binges, locking himself in the workshop for days on end, not leaving until he finished a project or two.

"Mr Stark?" Ella called out tentatively.

Her question was met with a short grunt, the older man not bothering to look up at the intruder.

"Can I stay here and talk to you?"

Tony's head swung up and locked eyes with Ella. She could see the dark rings surrounding the espresso brown, and felt his glare chill her soul. He stank of alcohol and sweat, eyes unfocused even though they saw right through the small girl.

"I'm busy here kid, go bother someone else, won't you?"

Ella bit back a hurt look and smiled sadly at her elder.

"Okay Mr Stark, I'm sorry for bothering you." With that, Ella turned and walked out of the workshop briskly, not wanting Tony to see her reddening face or glistening eyes.

On Tuesday, Ella went searching for her favourite archer, even going so far as to ask FRIDAY where he was hiding.

"Mr Barton is currently in the training rooms, three floors down."

Ella thanked the AI and headed down the elevator to the training rooms, where, true to FRIDAY's word, Clint stood, rapidly firing arrows into moving targets scattered around the room. Ella stood in the doorway just outside the elevator and cleared her throat. Clint swung around, an arrow in his bow, aiming at Ella, ready to fire. Flinching, the small girl held two hands up in mock surrender.

"Hey, I come in peace," Ella smiled, "Wanna take a break and chill with me?"

"No can-do Kiddo, you might not do much around here, but us heroes gotta train sometimes." Clint spoke whilst continually shooting arrows at the surrounding targets, not looking Ella in the eyes as he raced around the room. The younger's shoulder's deflated as her proposition was rejected once again, much like yesterday's conversation with Mr Stark.

"Oh, well I guess I'll let you get back to training then. Sorry for bothering you, Clint"

Ella sped back into the elevator, trying not to let Clint see how much his words affected her.

"He's right, I'm no hero," Ella mumbled to herself in the solitude of the lift, "I need to stop bothering the team."

On Wednesday Ella sought out her only female friend in the building (apart from Pepper, who scared her more than she'd like to admit). She knew that she had told herself to stop bothering the Avengers after her first two efforts were shot down, but the younger girl felt as though she needed to let some of her frustration out about her whole lack of self-esteem problem, before the darkness took over her mind. Natasha was perched on the foot of her bed, tapping away at her Stark Phone, looking uninterested as always.

"Hey Nat?" Ella poked her head through the doorway, silently asking for permission to enter the room.

"Yeah?" The assassin's gaze didn't move from the phone as Ella walked in, sitting on the side of the bed behind her.

"Can I talk to you for a bit? I'm having a problem."

"Yeah, sure, shoot." Came the cold reply.

Ella rambled on about how she was feeling lately to the red-headed Avenger, about how she was useless in the team, and that she felt she was bothering people who were truly busy now that the Avengers had re-formed.

After about ten minutes of babble, Ella noticed Natasha's concentration was elsewhere. The older woman was still staring at her phone, researching future targets, and forming plans for her next mission.

"Nat?" Ella asked, tentatively.

"Mhmm?" Still, the woman didn't look up from her device.

"Are you listening to me?" Ella already knew the answer, but still held out hope, in case the other woman was just multitasking and was actually listening to every word the teen had said.

"Yeah sure, look, just tell him you like him or something. I don't know, I don't really have time for this right now Ella, I have work to do." Natasha waved a hand absentmindedly in Ella's direction, still not breaking gaze from the screen in front of her.

Ella sighed and stood up, the dip in the mattress bouncing back, almost as if she was never there. Heading towards the door, she took one last look at Natasha, who's eyes never caught Ella's the entire time. She turned her head and opened the door to leave, but before her body left the doorway, she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey Ella?" Natasha spoke in a cool tone. Ella turned excitedly, hoping that the assassin had changed her mind and was wanting to share some of her advice on the situation.

"Yes?"

"Can I grab my black dress back off you, I need it. You can just leave it in the common room."

Ella's shoulder's deflated as her hopes were dashed once again. She turned back to the doorway and stepped out, her reply lost in translation between brain and mouth. Her powers closing the door with a concluding thunk behind her.

After the encounter with Natasha, Ella decided to try and find Bruce, believing that a bit of meditation and insight might help her solve her problems, or at least understand them a bit more. She headed to the soundproof room Bruce had installed for his meditation sessions since moving back into the tower, hoping the man himself was inside, able to give Ella some advice about her situation. As expected, the older man was sitting in the middle of the room as the younger girl entered, breathing soundly, eyes closed and relaxed. Not wanting to disturb the peace, Ella sat in the back of the room, trying to concentrate on mellowing out. Closing her eyes, the teenagers brain raced, filtering through her past, every time she had been kicked out of her home, or hurt on the streets whilst trying to survive. Ella couldn't sit still, as though the memories moved her whole body out of instinct and fear, not allowing her to relax like the scientist in front of her. Unconsciously, Ella's powers had begun to create a whirlwind inside the room, picking up half-burnt incense sticks and décor, throwing them around her head, mirroring the storm behind her eyes.

"ELLA!" Bruce yelled, making the teen open her eyes, wincing at the rush of light highlighting the destruction of the room in front of her. Bruce was clearly trying to hold back the green man inside, as a vein bulged in his forehead. "Get out, you're ruining my meditation. I have shit going on and I don't need a kid in the way as well."

Around them, items picked up in Ella's whirlwind suddenly dropped to the ground, no longer controlled by her power. She looked up at Bruce, trying not to let him see the tears forming after his outburst. Bruce had never sworn at Ella before, he always tried to keep his cool in front of her, knowing how terrible her past was. The older man's gaze softened as her saw the desolation in the small girl's face, unshed tears threatening to fall. He opened his mouth to say more, but Ella stood up and rushed out of the room, not able to endure another moment of shame before one of her mentors. The door closed behind her, swept up by a last tendril of wind from Ella's hand, as the child ran to the elevator, sobbing.

Ella took the elevator up to the roof, sitting in the still atmosphere, the soundscape of the city beneath her. The cold air stung her wet cheeks, drying them slowly. She swung her hands around subconsciously, making small circles in the dust settling on the floor with her fingertips. Closing her eyes once again, Ella focused her energy into her fingertips, forcing her brain to fall silent with exertion. The dust now swirled around her like water running through a river bed, the fluidity ebbing and flowing with her power. Ella let the control overtake her, the powder circling her body, a cyclone around the small girl on the edge of the building.

An exceptionally loud car horn broke her from her trance, the dust falling gracefully around her in a ring, coating her hair and shoulders in grey, sprinkling her nose and cheeks like snow. Ella sighed and cradled her head in her hands for a moment before reaching into her jeans to fish out her Stark Phone. Searching through the device, she scrolled through her contacts, trying to decide who to call for comfort; Someone that wouldn't be annoyed by her presence. Tony was out of the question – he was very clear in his opinion that she was a bother to him. Clint had been avoiding her since the training room, and Natasha was still probably researching. Pepper was out as well, that woman was probably busier than everybody else combined. Running her thumb over the screen, Ella pressed on the icon of her first friend in the tower, hoping he'd let her vent to him.

The phone rung out before she heard his voice, tinny and faint through the line.

"Hey this is Peter, I'm out having a great time with my friends, please leave a message and I'll get back to you."

Ella hung up before the tone played, not wanting to seem desperate in case his friends would listen to the voicemail as well. She was angry at herself, not making an effort to control her powers enough, only creating burdens for the other Avengers to clean up. Ella sighed, she had never seen Peter miss a call from the Avengers, but then again, the only calls she had seen him in was the video conversations with the whole team, where she sat in the back, observing, but never really speaking to him directly. Tossing the phone between each hand, hovering above the palms, the teenager looked at the tiny device, knowing Tony had only given it her in case he needed her for something. Irritated, the girl drifted the phone out, making it float over the edge of the building, with a final flick of her hands, the phone fell, making its way quickly to the ground below, splintering into tiny mechanical pieces with a faint crash in the streets of Manhattan. Ella stayed on the roof until the night fell over her, coating the city in darkness, making the lights below her look like stars moving through the galaxy, taking her far away from where she was. She skipped dinner that night, nobody had called her out or left food for her anyway, and after a decade living penny to penny, Ella was used to missing out on a meal or two. Nestled in her Iron-Man covers, Ella closed her eyes and tried to sleep, her mind reliving the nights she used to spend outside, her belly growling in anger at the emptiness, her mind always alert in case someone tried to attack her in the darkness. Sighing, the small girl sat up, unable to sleep in the comfort of the king-size bed. She took a threadbare blanket from her backpack that she had kept in the cupboard since being saved by Mr Stark, and wrapped it around her, heading back up to the roof, and settling into the nook between the floor and the border surrounding the rooftop, her mind transporting her back to her days on the run, alone, but not bothersome to anybody. She fell asleep, reminiscing on the pain of her past, knowing that she would have to relive it in reality soon enough, once the Avengers figured out she wasn't worth keeping around.


	13. Chapter 13

Ella woke up early, the sun shining in her eyes as she stretched her thin limbs out from the cold concrete bed. Her joints complained as they cracked, no longer used to sleeping on hard cement after months in a comfy bed. The events of the last few days rushed back into Ella's head, as she gathered the blanket and headed back to her room, showering and changing into clothes that weren't grey with cement dust. There was one person left in the building that Ella hadn't talked to yet, and, although she feared his rejection to her presence like all the others before him, Ella still craved support, especially from the Captain of the Avengers.

Shuffling into the library quietly, Ella passed the blonde-headed soldier, who was sketching thoughtfully, and nestled herself into her oversized armchair, grabbing the book she was currently invested in on the way. Encompassed in the soft material, she cracked open her book and proceeded to get lost in it. Over an hour later, she heard movement from the other side of the room; Steve was looking up at her, his clear blue yes meeting her cloudy grey ones. He raised an eyebrow at her lack of conversation, and she immediately broke eye contact. Ella was scared to initiate any form of conversation with Steve after her previous experiences with the rest of the Superhero team, knowing that the Captain's resentment towards her would be the hardest thing for her to experience. Through lack of trying, Ella thought she wouldn't be able to get hurt by the mentor that meant most to her, besides Tony. Eventually, Steve returned to his sketch, and kept the silence heavy in the room, machinery only accompanied by the quiet sounds of their intermingled breathing. Ella tried to return to her book, but her thoughts wouldn't let her. After her meeting with Bruce, any form of meditation agitated the young teenager, she couldn't sit still, or rather, she couldn't keep the items around her from staying still. Squeezing her eyes closed, Ella hoped that she could shut out the voices in her head, screaming at her to run, leave the tower behind and return to the life she knew before.

One by one, unbeknownst to the small girl swathed in her soft cotton blanket in the armchair, books began to slide out of their spaces in the shelves. Soon the room was filled with the image of dancing paper – books cascading from the walls, shelves tremoring with built up energy. Steve had long abandoned his sketchbook, instead opting to hold up a larger atlas as a makeshift shield, dodging flying books and raining pages.

"Ella!" Steve tried to call out to the distressed girl, still somehow oblivious to the commotion occurring around her. "ELLA!"

The young girl's eyes snapped open at the sound of Steve's frustrated voice. Her face fell as she surveyed the scene she had caused in one of the most sacred rooms in the tower – her sanctuary. The room was covered in ripped pages, paper still flying throughout the air, as though the remnants of a tornado were still present, tossing around words and spaces like they were toys. Ella froze, scared to look at the older man and see the look of disappointment he must have shown on his face. The small girl threw aside her blanket and book, and sprinted out of the door, books already reforming and replacing themselves in their correct homes behind her.

Alone in the empty mess, Steve shook his head solemnly and began to clean alongside the animated books.


	14. Chapter 14

Ella hadn't left her room in two days. Her en suite bathroom allowed her privacy – not needing to breach the beige prison she had confined herself in. Nobody had knocked on her door in those two days, or even tried to contact her, not that she would know, however; her phone was still in a million pieces in the Manhattan streets. Over the course of her solitude, Ella had time to think. She knew her presence in the tower had become more of a hassle than a help – contrary to what Mr Stark had told her when she first arrived in the Avenger's home. Now that Peter was off traversing the country with his friends, there was nobody to help her train, to assist her in figuring out how to be an actual teenager, rather than a lonely girl, lost in how to behave around other people. Ella had walked around her barren room, digging out her old backpack from the cupboards, and slowly packing a change of clothes, her torn photograph of her parents, and now, another picture, one of her, surrounded by the Avengers on the first night she had left her room after the incident. Folding the pictures carefully, Ella slid them into her new copy of Matilda, graciously loaned to her by Steve, from his library that she had so recently trashed. On her third day, Ella looked around her bare room sadly, silently saying goodbye. An hour prior, the Avengers alarm had rung, and she knew it was her slim chance to leave the tower without crossing paths with anyone inside.

"FRIDAY?" Ella called quietly, as not to draw the attention of any other members of the tower, even though she was pretty sure her room was soundproofed.

"Yes Miss Whitton? How may I be of assistance"

"Is everyone gone?"

"Sir and the rest of the team are all out on call at the moment, their estimated time of return is currently uncertain. Would you like me to call Sir for help?"

"No thanks FRIDAY," Ella spoke softly, her plans to leave confirmed in her mind, "Can you do one thing for me though?"

"Yes Miss Whitton, what is it?" The reply came immediately, awaiting instruction.

"Can you give them a message when they come back? Just tell them I said thanks, and sorry for being such a bother. Oh, and tell them I'll miss them?" Ella wanted to tell the team she now considered her family how much she loved them – how it meant the world to her that they took her in and helped her back on her feet after the incident in Brooklyn, but she knew that sharing that kind of love is a weakness. It was apparent to her now that the love was not reciprocated from the team, so she felt an obligation to get out of their hair – it was selfish of her to stay and make them uncomfortable in her presence.

"Of course, Miss Whitton, the message will play as they return. May I ask where you are headed, and what time you will expect to be back?" FRIDAY's realistic voice almost sounded like a concerned parent to Ella, but she knew the AI was programmed to know where all members of the tower were always.

"I'm just going… out. I don't know when I'll be back. Don't wait up." Ella couldn't tell the AI where she was going, purely because she herself didn't know. Ella knew she was heading back to her life on the streets, but wasn't sure how to get back there without any money, or at least a train ticket.

Making her way through the kitchen, Ella grabbed some muesli bars that were about to expire, along with a few pieces of fruit, and a water bottle. She wasn't planning on stealing food from the team, but the young girl remembered how hard it was to find a decent meal with no money, and knew she had to have a few items to tide her over until she could figure out a way to get some more.

In the elevator to the ground floor, Ella planned what she was going to do next. She knew that she had to find her way back to Brooklyn, where she was familiar with the streets, and how safe each of them were. For now, however, Ella planned to find a shelter somewhere in Manhattan for a few nights, knowing that the Avengers wouldn't realise she was gone for a few days, judging by the lack of contact whist she had holed herself up in her room before leaving. Ella didn't believe the Avengers were going to look for her at all, so she felt safe in her decision to stick close to the tower, until other plans were made to get back to her old home on the streets of Brooklyn.


	15. Chapter 15

Ella wandered along the streets gracing the outskirts of the tower's entrance, hiding behind a large, dented dumpster when she saw the familiar lights of the jet land alongside the bright flares from the Ironman thrusters on the top of the landing pad in the tower. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and silently thanked whoever was looking out for her that the team returned safe and sound. Picking up her backpack, Ella wandered through the length of the alleyway, and settled herself in behind the dead end for the night, keeping her back covered in case of any unexpected visitors. Her eyes slowly drifting closed, Ella curled further in on herself, allowing the darkness to cloak her vision, lulling her to sleep.

It had been a few days since the young girl had run away, and Ella had slowly emigrated farther and farther away from the tower, still making sure it was visible in her peripheral; Telling herself it was in case any of the Avengers left for a mission and didn't come back, but more because she felt safe in the knowledge that she had a place to run if she did decide to crawl home. Her food stash was running low, only half a muesli bar and a wilted apple left to keep her going until she could hide out behind a kind restaurant and wait for remains to appear. Munching on the last half of the bar, Ella delved deeper into the alleyway she was exploring, assuming there was at least a café on the other end, who didn't monitor their rubbish bins. She was so focused on sucking the last dregs off her chocolate-covered fingertips, the small teen had almost stepped on a soft, dark shape, huddled close to the brick wall. The huddle let out a soft whimper when she came near, and Ella reached down to find a small child, no older than five or six, dirty and ragged, as she was when she first slept in the alleys of Brooklyn.

"Hey little one, why the long face?" Ella crouched next to the boy, now eye to eye.

A soft whisper drifted from the child's cracked lips; A string of mumbled words not even Ella's accentuated hearing could understand.

"You're gonna have t' speak louder kid." Her Brooklyn accent lilting through the air, thickening, as though it gave off a sort of comfort for the kid in front of her.

"I can't find my way home." The boy murmured, looking up at her through light, almost invisible blond eyelashes.

"Well, that's easy to do, grab my hand, and we'll get ya there in no time, punk." Ella winced as pet name came out without thought, an idiosyncrasy she had picked up from the Captain, and held out her hand, still slick with saliva after her struggle with the muesli bar. The child grabbed her hand with his grubby fist, and pulled himself up, pausing for a moment before almost comically dragging her out of the alleyway and into the darkening streets of outer Manhattan.

"Hey slow down kid, Jeez, you're like a bat outta hell." Ella yelled, mostly to herself, as the kid looked pretty intent on powering his way through the winding streets, sticking to his own (questionable) map of the city. The pair ended their journey in front of a dim building, covered in various states of decay, and most definitely not up to the building code.

The cautious voice deep inside Ella was yelling at her to let go, anything inside a desolate abandoned-looking building was probably not a field full of daisies, but Ella continued inside, helped along by the grubby fist still attached to the small child dragging her to her fate; There may be a slim chance the kid really was lost, and who was the girl to judge living conditions, she had slept in a dirty alley for most of her developmental life. Besides, even though the Avengers didn't have a use for her in the long run, Ella still wanted to prove her worth, if, by some off chance, the team did come looking for her.

They entered through a heavy side door, the metal lock blown off with some sort of firearm. Ella kept her senses heightened, knowing that any proof of weapons inside a deserted area was sliding up the scale on the danger factor. She tried to take solace in the idea that she had a child with her – any self-respecting person, even a villain, didn't go straight for a child, did they?

The hollow steps of the pair of runaways rung throughout the dark building, allowing anyone inside the knowledge of their intrusion. Ella decided there was no use in hiding, and yelled out, wanting to give this kid back to his parents, and run off to her relatively safe little corner in Brooklyn.

"Hello?" Ella's small voice echoed throughout the area, distortions returning back to her in greeting. "I've got your kid here." She winced at the phrasing, knowing it was indelicate to pass the child off to some random person in a dodgy building, but her gut feeling was telling her to run, and far away at that.

A light suddenly illuminated the middle of the floor, where a dark shape sat struggling in a wooden chair, bound by thick ropes, and gagged with a dirty cloth. Ella ran to the shape, and ripped the cloth out of his mouth.

"Get out, Ella, now!" A young man, not much older than the small teen choked out, gasping for breath.

"What, wait, how do you know my name?" Ella looked at the man before her intently, his eyes holding a glimmer of recognition – she knew this man, but how?

"I tried looking for you El, I really did. I'm sorry I never found you." The young man's eyes brimmed with glossy tears, threatening to run tracks through his dirt-caked cheeks. His sandy hair and sea-glass eyes reminiscent of someone from Ella's past. The teenager furrowed her brow, pictures of strangers and friends filtering through her mind's eye, finally falling to a stop on the image of a small boy, running out to an even smaller girl, sitting in the gutter outside of a youth home. Ella looked up at the boy in shock, letting a sliver of hopefulness slip in her voice.

"Jack?" She whispered, her heart dropping to the bottom of her stomach. The child she had entered with was long forgotten, he had run into a shadowed corner of the room, silent as a mouse.

"Yeah, remember me?" Jack smiled sadly, lost in the reconnection, before his red-rimmed eyes widened again. "You need to leave, little one." The pet name slipping out before he could stop it forming in his traitorous mouth

"I'm not a little one anymore, Jack, I can take care of myself."

"Remember the last time you took matters into your own hands?" Jack joked, wincing as the tone of his voice sharpened accusingly.

"I was eight back then, Jack, I'm older now, let me save you for once." Ella ignored the boy's jibe, still focusing on untying the ropes that bound him.

"El, you're only what, 17 now? You're still a kid." Jack's voice softened as his resolve broke down, there was no way he was going to convince Ella to run from him and the trouble she had gotten herself into.

"Yeah, and you're 19, yet here we are, you needing my help for once. Let. Me. Help. You." Ella punctuated her last few words with sharp tugs of the rope, ultimately only tightening the bonds surrounding the boy, before sighing deeply and letting her mind focus.

"Hey what's going on kid? Don't close your eyes, how are you going to untie th-"

"Shut up Jack." Ella interrupted, willing for the world to go silent so she could channel her remaining energy into unwinding the difficult knots. Behind closed eyelids, the teen pictured the binds sliding out from within each other, a puzzle made in reverse. Next to her came a low gasp, Jack watching the grime-caked strings dance hypnotically around him, like snakes in an old movie, following the notes of the charmer's flute.

"You've still got it," Ella opened her eyes to Jack's shining grin, flexing his hands in front of him, now free from restraint, "you clever girl."

The young girl began to return the smile, a faint blush creeping up from the neck of her shirt, when a sound from behind the pair caused her to jump from shock.

"Yes, you _clever_ little girl."

Ella whipped around, her eyes landing on the tall man before her, holding some sort of stick, spinning it gently between his nimble fingers.

"Who are you?" The girl asked, putting on her nonchalant façade, borrowed from Tony Stark himself.

"No child, you don't need to know that. I would ask who you are, but you see, I already know." The man turned to display a video feed on the screen behind him, a pixelated vision of Ella on a street corner, the same video shown to her many months ago in Mr Starks tower. Ella's spine tingled with fear as she saw the look upon the man's face; Accomplishment. "You see, I thought I had what I needed, these kids rake in a lot of money you know, but now I think my collection is truly complete; I have the ultimate pet – Tony Stark's little project."

"I'm not Tony Stark's little _anything,_ " Ella spat out, already planning her attack route on the man before her, "I am my own _fucking person_."

The figure laughed before walking into the light towards the teens. "She's got a mouth on her, doesn't she Jack? That's no way for a lady to talk."

Ella's reply was lost as she started towards the man, only to be hit back by the end of the stick.

"No!" Jack yelled, struggling to untie his legs from the chair, now that his arms were free.

The girl faced her assailant with a disgruntled look, her shoulder throbbing from the combined force of the weapon, alongside the electric current it seemed to eject. The man laughed as he swung the object once again, hitting Ella's side with enough blunt force to leave her doubled over, gasping for breath. The girl sank to her knees, clutching her ribs as she felt them crack and shift in pain underneath her sallow skin. Looking up at her attacker through thick, dark lashes, she winced as she spat blood out at his feet.

There was nothing for Ella to manipulate around her, bar the dust and grime that swirled beneath her feet, and the wooden chair that Jack was currently still trying to untangle his feet from. The man took another step towards Ella's hunched figure, towering over her like the preacher from her past did do many years ago. His lips stretched into an evil smile as he lowered the tip of the rod onto Ella's head, burying it into the mess of dark hair flying wildly around from the current.

"Goodnight, pet."

Ella's world went black.


	16. Chapter 16

The incessant drip of a leaking ceiling rattled in Ella's head; A metronomic beat, almost as loud as a snare with her heightened senses, even more so since the shock.

The young girl allowed her eyes to adjust to the light behind her eyelids, the bright halogens filtered into a softer pink, before assaulting her senses. The first thing she felt was the cold. Ella shivered as she opened her eyes slowly, casting them over her frail body, checking for more injuries. She was no longer wearing the clothes she had left the Stark Tower in; The young teen was now clothed in a thin black singlet and pants, comparable to paper, both in weight, and their ability to retain heat. Curling in on herself, bile rose in Ella's throat with the knowledge that someone had undressed her whilst she was unconscious. With a deep breath, the girl winced as she felt her ribs shift, still sore from their interaction with the metal rod, and the mystery man.

"Jack." Ella gasped, looking up at her surroundings, eyes scoping out what looked to be an array of metal cages, all containing children, none of them her former friend.

"Ella." A voice came from a cage behind the girl, and she swung around to see Jack, his ankles raw from the struggle to be freed, and his face bruised; Ella assumed from another beating whilst she was out. "I told you to run."

The small teen tried to wind her arms through the bars of her prison, reaching for some comfort, but found them to be bound together by the same rope that had encompassed Jack in the warehouse.

"What's going on?" She spoke, confusion lacing her tone. "Why are we here?"

"Welcome to hell" A small voice lilted through the grate of a cage, almost a whisper.

"Shut up Callum," Another stronger voice spoke, thick with a strange sense of authority, "It's not hell, but we're pretty damn close. Welcome to the Experiment."

"Who are you?" Ella spoke out through the throng of cages, each child at the bars, ears perked at the anticipation of a new intruder.

"My name's Jennifer, I was the first. Well, the second, but the first never came back, so technically I'm it now."

"The first what?" Ella was almost too afraid to ask, already knowing the answer.

"The first to be kept. Captured. Collected. Whatever you want to call it." Jennifer drawled, her southern accent crawling through the air, seemingly bored.

"What are they collecting you for?" Ella tried to inject her voice with every ounce of energy and confidence she could muster, trying to seem calm and controlled in front of such a large audience.

"We don't know," Jennifer spoke quietly now, contemplating how much she revealed to the newcomers, "They take us one by one, poke us and prod us, stick us and slash us. Sometimes we come back, sometimes we don't."

Ella fell silent, watching the gleaming eyes of the prisoners around her, some of them red rimmed and bloodshot, as though they hadn't slept in days. She knew then that she couldn't escape from this prison, not alone, and not without freeing every other child inside, even if that meant never leaving again.


	17. Chapter 17

Ella had sat in the middle of her barren floor for a few hours before the same man from earlier walked to her door, flanked by two soldiers, broad and unmoving in their stance.

"Ready for some fun?" He grinned, holding out the rod through the gaps between the bars in her cage.

Ella spat at the floor in front of her in lieu of a reply, and narrowed her eyes at the man and his entourage.

"Okay, so that's the way the cookie is going to crumble." The man spoke whilst he jabbed Ella with the end of the rod, sending a strong current through her thin frame. The small girl slumped against the back of her cell, heavy lidded and drained from the electricity, head hung against her chest. The tell-tale creak of her door told her that the man and his goons were inside the space, and she tried to move out of the way, a flash chance to run through the wall of muscle and lock the men inside her cage, where they could do no harm. Her assailant chuckled as he caught the young girl's shoulder before she could get up, recognising her attempt a mile off.

"Don't even try, pet, you're not the first kid we've locked in here that thinks they have some spunk."

Ella sighed and retreated back into the wall, bracing herself for whatever came next – which happened to be the strong hands of one of the guards, lifting her and shoving her into a waiting wheelchair, complete with reinforced restraints, and a long metal strip lining the arms and seat, no doubt to be used in conjunction with the main attacker's favourite toy.

The small girl was wheeled through empty halls into a clean room, barren except for another chair accessorised with leather cuffs and metal accents, and a glass mirror covering one wall, most likely containing a room full of 'scientists' on the other side.

After Ella was jostled into the free-standing chair in the middle of the room, the goons stood back, out of the teenage girl's eyesight, breathing down her neck on either side of the room. The mysterious man stood in front of Ella, casually shifting his weapon between his hands, smiling uncomfortably at the young girl's attempt to quell the panic rising inside of her stomach.

"So, little Ella," he started, advancing towards the girl, still weakly struggling against her binds, "or should I call you Eleanor? I mean, it's what your sweet parents named you right?"

Ella froze against the restraints at the sound of her full name. She hadn't heard the word in so long, it was as though she had no right to it anymore. Eleanor was the name of a happy child, one who was thoroughly loved by two doting parents; Ella wasn't that child anymore.

Sensing her reaction, the man let out a low chuckle. "Why the long face, Eleanor? I have a feeling you and I are going to be very good friends, just like your buddy Jack."

Ella swung her head up in indignation, dark hair flying wildly around her, narrowing her eyes in a threatening action towards her attacker.

"What did you do to Jack?" She spat out, fire raging in her gut.

"Jack? Oh we didn't do anything to him, did we boys?" The man looked towards the soldiers standing stone-still behind Ella, still unmoving and stoic in response to the question. "He wandered in a few nights ago looking for a place to stay, and we were so kind as to offer him one. Especially when we'd found out Stark's prize pet had been let out of the tower for a walk around."

The young girl was disgusted, her oldest friend had been tied to a chair for a few days as bait whilst she roamed the streets in an attempt to get away from the only home she'd found since the accident. Shifting in her seat, Ella locked eyes with the mysterious man once more, trying to look through him as so many others had done to her.

"What do you want from me." She spoke, repulsion thick in her tone.

"Oh the usual bad-guy stuff, you know?" Her assailant responded, still smiling sickly, "The Avenger's secrets, what little Tony's been working on lately, all that pizzaz. Also the fact that they'll come for you in the end, rescuing their resident damsel in distress – especially when they get your finger in the mail."

The man almost seemed excited at the prospect of mailing the Avengers Ella's mutilated skin, before the girl before him spoke up with a tinge of humour in her reply.

"You won't get any secrets from me, because I don't know any secrets." Ella almost laughed audibly.

"What was that?" A touch of uncertainty laced the mysterious man's voice; He was panicking, Ella realised.

"I think you're severely overestimating how important I was to the Avengers. They're not going to come looking for me, I doubt they'll realise I'm gone." The teenager let out a small chuckle at the man's expression before settling into her chair once more. "I'm probably worth less than the toilet paper Stark uses to wipe his shit with, so you're fresh outta luck pal."

The assailant swung at Ella in a split second, the force causing her face to slam in the side of the chair. The girl winced at the metallic taste filling her mouth, and turned to look back at the man under her thick mane.

"That the best you got?" She muttered, spitting out the mixture of blood and saliva at her feet.

Her question was met with another blow from the rod, knocking her out cold, and leaving her at the will of her attackers once more.

* * *

Hey guys, I don't usually do author's notes, but here's a heads up that the next chapter will probably be the final one :( It's hella long and hopefully wraps up all ends. I chose to publish everything at once after the first few chapters bc I had finished writing this fic about a week ago, and thought you all deserved to have a good binge instead of me letting bits and pieces out each week. See you next chapter, and thanks for the support!


	18. Chapter 18

Ella woke up in her cage again, this time unbound by the ropes that her assailants seemed to favour for the more energetic captives. She knew they believed her confession that she was useless in their aim to uncover Avenger's secrets, but also understood that they would not let her free in fear that she would run back to them, alerting the forces of their presence.

A set of heavy shoes walked past Ella's cage, rhythmic and slow; the nightly rounds made by another soldier in the sea of children. The teenager waited for the footsteps to fade before catching sight of the closest lock in her range.

"Hey," She whispered to the child enclosed inside, "stay back and keep quiet."

Ella closed her eyes and visualised mechanisms turning inside, shifting and sorting themselves before hearing a tell-tale click of a lock opening. The child inside touched their door experimentally, a wall of metal slowly swinging back and forth off the hinges, letting out a mellow creak as it did. Ella looked at the child and motioned for it to close the door once again, pretending as though it was still locked. She continued unlocking as many cages as she could for the rest of the night, foregoing rest in order to let more children free.

In the morning, the forces aimed straight for her door once again, soldiers grabbing her swiftly and lifting her into the wheelchair that sat waiting outside her door. Ella sat quietly as she was bound into the chair, allowing the restraints to be tightened around her wrists and legs, swallowing the panic forming insider her mind. As long as she was the focus of attention from the party of maniacs running the place, the rest of the children seemed to be safe, and she could try to unlock the rest of the cages that night.

Her questioning went similarly to the day before, except she was lifted out after the beating and placed onto a gurney waiting for her in another room. After being strapped into the bed, the mysterious man reappeared without his baton, instead favouring a large syringe in his right hand, weeping a fluorescent liquid that Ella knew was not an ideal substance to be injecting into the body. The man tapped the glass vial to rid any air bubbles and proceeded to plunge the needle deep into Ella's neck, letting the bright liquid ebb into her veins slowly and painfully. The girl gritted her teeth in agony before slumping back into a comatose state once again, her world fading into nothingness before waking up on the cold concrete of her cage once more.

That night, Ella managed to complete her task of unlocking every cage, making sure the children inside knew not to let the guards know of her actions. The young girl knew that if the children had any chance of escaping, they had to leave altogether, at risk of any soldiers finding out about the doors, and relocking them in a more secure way.

It turns out Ella didn't have to wait too long until her plan came into action, as a few days later, after her daily session of beatings and experimentation, a rumbling ran through the building late at night, as everyone was trying to clutch at the weak moments of sleep they could, before the morning patrol woke them up rudely.

The bars of each cage rattled, and the children had to hold the doors in place, in fear they would swing out and expose Ella's work at unlocking them.

A hole was blast in the roof high above the children's heads, dust and plaster raining down upon them like a blessing of hope. Ella looked up at the intrusion, only to be met with the sight of her gang of heroes, descending from the newly implemented skylight.

Tony saw her first, changing his trajectory to land in front of her cage, clutching at the bars in a moment of lost control over his emotions.

"Ella." He gasped breathlessly, his faceplate rising to reveal a very worried Tony Stark, lines creasing through his forehead, and blue rings hanging underneath his eyes, as though he hadn't slept since the child had run away.

"Hi Mr Stark." Ella waved awkwardly, wincing as her ribs shifted under the movement, still sore and bruised from her last 'meeting' with the mysterious man.

Before Tony could lay into the teenage girl about her reckless decisions, a shot aimed at the back of the Iron Man armour alerted the team to the fact that they were no longer alone. Stark swivelled around, his face plate lowering as he took in the image of the mysterious man and his gang of soldiers, already engaged in combat with the rest of the Avengers. The man in the iron suit blasted away from the cage, aiming himself towards the closest goon.

Ella saw Captain America land a few feet away from her cage, and waved him over frantically, trying to ignore the amount of pain it caused her. He ran towards the teenage girl, eyes scanning her to see what was wrong. Before he could ask her what she needed, Ella rambled a set of instructions to the leader of the group, aware she had a limited amount of time to make sure that her plan was successful.

"Mr Rogers, I need you to open a door somewhere, it doesn't matter where, but we need to get these kids out of here as soon as we can." Ella gasped, eyes frantically scouring the children in the cages, still holding tight to their doors, trying to keep themselves from being caught in the crossfire between the soldiers.

"But their cages, it will take ages to open them all - " Steve began, but Ella caught him before he could finish.

"Don't worry about that, just get them outta here" She spoke sternly, her accent slipping through in her desperation to help the prisoners.

The captain turned and threw his shield at the closest wall, shattering the concrete and plaster, letting a stream of light fall through the cracks, showering the room in the golden rays of the setting sun. His shield returned to him and he threw it once more, the hole in the wall finally forming an escape big enough for an average adult to get through, let alone the small children surrounding them. He turned back to Ella just in time to see her deep in concentration, hovering a few feet above the floor of her cage, eyes closed and brow furrowed in focus. Her arms were lifted in the direction of the cages around her, slowly drifting alongside her energies, grabbing every door and holding it in her power. Ella flicked her hands in a sudden movement, and simultaneously every cage door in the building slammed open, freeing every child and letting them escape into the open air. Every door except hers, that is. Ella looked around frantically, yelling at the children to run, before she fell back to the concrete floor of her cage, out cold.

Steve grabbed at the bars surrounding the child, bending them with ease, as though they were made of dough, rather than steel. He rushed towards the girl he had come to care for as a friend, and held her head as she lay unconscious, checking for signs of bleeding and injury. His hands ghosted the blue and purple bruising across her ribcage and legs, noticing the pattern continuing up to her forearms, as though they were continually hit from protecting her face. The captain's hands tightened in anger as he realised what they had done to his child, only loosening his grip when the figure beneath him let out a small whimper of pain. As he looked down at the girl, a hand on his shoulder made him flinch from surprise. Tony Stark looked down on the pair in concern, his face visible between the bordering armour of his helmet, eyebrows furrowed as he took in the image of his female protégé, still woozy and waking from her effort.

Ella slowly sat up from Steve's arms, and allowed herself to be led into the open air outside the building, noticing that the fight was long over. Sitting on the edge of a step in the brisk evening, she saw ambulances filled with children, each of them huddled under foil blankets, small as anything, but grateful smiles gracing their dirty faces. She knew each of them were going to be taken care of both physically and mentally, and had all been promised a safe and loving home, built and funded by Stark industries. Surrounded in her own foil blanket, a ring of shadows approached her, silhouettes illuminated from behind by the bright white street lights, forming halos on each member of the Avengers as they crowded around Ella, shielding her from the rest of the commotion on the street.

"Why didn't you call for help?" Mr Stark's reply was harsh and questioning, and Ella felt as though she was being chastised by a father.

"I don't want to bother you," Ella whispered, not making eye contact with the team of heroes that now surrounded her, "also, I may or may not have broken my phone before I left."

"Bother us? What would make you think you were _bothering_ us?" Steve asked, astonished.

"The week before I left, you were all busy. I mean, it was my fault for annoying you, you all had things to do but, I don't know, Mr Stark told be not to bother you guys anymore."

"Shit," Tony sighed, "I told you to stop bothering me when I was drunk that night, didn't I? I'm sorry kiddo, nothing I say is true when I'm three days in without sleep, but it still doesn't mean I should have said it." Ella had never seen Mr Stark ramble so long about something other than science for once. A deep red rushed over her face as she began to realise that she may have overreacted to the responses from the team before she had run away.

"No Mr Stark, it was my fault. I shouldn't have made such a mess of the tower. You warned me before that I wasn't a hero, and the fact that I couldn't control my own abilities proved it. I'm sorry for worrying you, but it was for the best." Ella began again, insistent in her own sense of self-dismissal.

"No Ella, blame me for god's sake," Clint started, "I was the one who basically told you that you weren't a hero and I feel like shit about it. You have every right to be in the tower as the rest of us. I was so focused on training alone, that I didn't realise you were asking for help as well. I'm sorry kiddo." The archer moved to ruffle the young girl's hair like he used to, but stopped as the little one flinched, her years of living rough re-ignited after her stay in the experiment.

Natasha slid through the crowd of heroes after Clint's speech, like a snake in tall grass. She looked hurt, conflicting emotions flitting across her face, a rare occurrence for the usually poker-faced assassin. "I'm sorry too, El, you tried to talk to me, and I basically ignored you. From now on I promise, if you need me, I'll be there – Us girls have to stick together, especially in the sausage fest that is the Avenger's Tower." She closed her speech with a small chuckle, still keeping strong eye contact with the younger teen, showing her that the assassin meant every word, regret thick in her voice.

"Me too," Bruce stepped forward, "I know you didn't mean to lose control. I was so focused on trying to keep myself in check, that I forgot I had someone else struggling with the same problem. You have every right to be angry at me, kid, of all people, I should have seen your struggle earlier." The scientist looked small amongst his team-mates, still fitting in perfectly amongst them. The man looked down at Ella, sorrowful and sincere, and she forgave him on the spot, all of them. Ella knew they regretted their actions when she was asking for help, and felt sure that they would make an effort to repair the damaged trust they had caused by letting her slip by.

"I thought you wanted space."

Ella looked up at a familiar voice, her stormy eyes locking with sincere blue.

"I should have run after you, told you that the mess in the library was nothing. I wasn't mad at you, I don't think I ever could be; I just thought you needed space to breathe. You always came to talk to me, I was so happy about that. So, when you ran away, I didn't know how to react; I see now, my reaction was the wrong one." Steve looked as though he was about to cry, his soldier-straight posture breaking down as he knelt before Ella, holding out his arms. Tentatively, Ella stepped into them, her fear of contact breaking down as she embraced her mentor, relaxing into the heat of another body, a loving guardian.

" 'm sorry." Came a choked sob from the older man, his Brooklyn accent thickening with emotion.

"It's okay." She whispered to the Captain, knowing his serum-enhanced hearing would allow him to hear the words crystal clear, her own matching accent coming through, "'m okay"

The sound of a throat clearing behind them forced the two apart. In the space stood a familiar red and blue clad figure, looking awkward and out of place in the sentimental moment.

"I'm sorry too El," Peter started, jumping on the apology train, almost like a cheesy lifetime movie, "I was on the plane home to see you guys. I tried calling you back like a million times after that missed call, but you never picked up, I just assumed you didn't want to speak to me. I mean, even in our video chats, you never seem to talk, which is okay and all, but you know, there's only so much a spider can do before thinking that - "

Ella almost laughed over the situation, diving into Peter's outstretched arms and cutting his ramble off. Whispering into the boy's ear, she explained that her phone had mysteriously fallen off the side of a very tall building.

"You don't need to apologise too, punk. I never spoke in those videos because I knew you wanted to talk to the Avengers first, I mean, they are your family."

"Ella, you idiot, you're part of the family too." The spiderling shook his head in disbelief, before hugging Ella closer, letting her sense his apology wordlessly. Ella accepted his embrace and melted into it – two puzzle pieces finally interlocking in the perfect way.

* * *

Here we are - the end! I might be considering another series starring Ella, but I'm not 100% yet - let me know if you guys would be interested in that because I had so much fun creating her for this fic. As I said at the start, this is my first effort writing anything at all, so let me know if theres any gaping plot holes or huge errors, I'd like to fix them up :) also let me know if you enjoyed the fic! I didn't expect it to be this long tbh, but it just kept writing itself. I know the main character's a lil problematic, but Im a sucker for angst so there you go :P Thanks for reading!


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